Earlier this year, in January 2025, wildfires in Los Angeles sparked widespread concern. While the fires did pose a real threat to the region, the specific claim about the Hollywood sign’s destruction was later debunked through fact-checking. Below, we revisit the key findings from our earlier verification to clarify the facts and address any lingering misinformation.
Claim:
Viral pictures and videos about the wildfire spread online, showing that the historic Hollywood sign was engulfed in flames.
Fact Check:
These videos and pictures are faked, with the participation of AI-technology.
1. Authoritative Verification
Jeff Zarrinnam, chair of the Hollywood Sign Trust, said that while Griffith Park was temporarily closed as a safety precaution, but the Hollywood sign was “not affected and is secure,” AFP reported.
- Unnatural lighting on the letters of the Hollywood sign and the different levels of compression between the fire, lighting and background are signs that the fire was added to the photo, either using image-editing software or generative AI, according to Reuters’s interview to James O’Brien, professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Comparing with the real photos of the Los Angeles wildfire from the Fortune, the photo of the Hollywood sign marks the lack of colour transition of the fire.
- Different direction of the flames: in the video, the direction of the flame is different. The flame on the top of the montain and under the character H is shifted to the right, while the flames on the side of sign exceeds the left of the picture. In real circumstances, because of the fixed wind direction, the wildfire should be shifted in the same direction, so the flames in the video ate not real.
- Watermark detection: some images contained the logo of social media platform X’s AI chatbot, Grok. The watermark is unremovable, to indicate the participation of AI in image generation.
- Deepfake detection: according to GetReal Labs, a deepfake detection company, some of the visual images appeared to be fabricated, in at least some cases using AI-technology.
4. Eyewitness Verification
The citizens of Los Angeles went to the Hollywood sign site the day after the release of the pictures and videos, proving that the Hollywood sign was not on fire.
Verdict
This video is a deliberate fabrication. It merges digitally altered footage of the Hollywood sign engulfed in flames with unrelated wildfire scenes, falsely portraying the iconic landmark as being destroyed. The creators used AI-generated imagery, misleading captions, and dramatic visuals to simulate a breaking news event, despite the Hollywood sign remaining completely unaffected by the fires. Viewers should critically assess viral disaster claims and rely on trusted fact-checking platforms for verification.
